Is “A” really for average?
At some highly selective private colleges, perhaps it is, according to a new analysis of grade-point averages released this week by Stuart Rojstaczer, a retired professor known for his study of grade inflation.
On his Web site, GradeInflation.com, Mr. Rojstaczer indicates that the phenomenon persists at private and public colleges, and that institutions with the highest average grades tend to have the most grade inflation.
His last major assessment of grades was in 2003, when he was a professor of environmental science at Duke University. Since then, he says, he has expanded his data, which indicate that average grades at private colleges rose from 3.09 in 1991 to 3.30 in 2006. At public colleges, grades rose, on average, from 2.85 to 3.01.
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